The present invention relates to apparatus for teaching and improving writing skills and, more particularly, to apparatus for teaching and improving stroke forming and character forming skills.
Educational and teaching machines have been developed for improving various skills, for example, arithmetic and reading skills. These machines typically operate under the control of a micro-processor and present a problem to be solved to the user. The user-entered response is then evaluated as correct or incorrected and an appropriate audio or visual response is provided by the machine. For example, in the case of a machine for enhancing arithmetic skills, a problem is presented on a display device, such as a LED or LCD display, and the user is asked to enter the correct numeric answer via a keypad. The machine then evaluates the user-entered answer and provides an appropriate response to the user as to the correctness of the answer. In the case of a machine that improves spelling skills, an audio request to enter a selected `target` word is made, usually by a program controlled voice synthesizer, with the user entering his response via an alpha-character keypad. The response is evaluated and an appropriate indication provided to the user. In general, machines that provide instruction in arithmetic and spelling skills utilize readily available and inexpensive alpha-numeric displays and keypads such that the manufacturing costs are sufficiently low to make the machines available to a large number of consumers.
Instructional and educational machine that provide instruction in writing skills, including stroke-forming, and character forming skills, however, have not been marketed generally since machines that provide instruction for improving writing skills require far more sophisticated display devices, for example, an all points addressable (APA) graphics display for the presentation of a large combination of linear and curved strokes, a user-input device capable of accepting a wide variety of linear and curved strokes, and, lastly, a capability of effecting some type of consistent evaluation of the user-entered response. For example, the apparatus disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 4,464,118 issued Aug. 7, 1984 to Scott et al discloses a machine for improving penmanship and drawing skills which includes a speech synthesis system, a display device, drawing surface, and an optical input system by which characters drawn on a drawing surface by the user are projected into an optical imager which then provides an electrical output to a stored-program processor for character recognition processing. The use of an optical projection system, as disclosed in the '118 patent, poses a number of practical limitations since the optical components, including mirrors and lenses, make difficult the construction of a compact and inexpensive machine. Accordingly, instructional and educational machines that improve stroke-forming and character-forming skills have not been marketed generally in comparison to the widespread success of the machines that improve arithmetic add spelling skills.